The mystery malware inadvertently brought into space by scientists which then infected the International Space Station has been identified as a gaming Trojan.
The historical infection actually happened five years ago in 2008 but was propelled back into the news again last week as the result of a recent speech by Eugene Kaspersky …

If you're not joking -it does and I spent a great deal of my last few years at work running EXTREMELY expensive molecular and protein modeling programs - all closed-source and all protected to the hilt.

..I was detecting irony (or rather, sarcasm) in the OPs statement - of course that might have been wrong as well. The article was seeming to suggest that the switch from Windows to Linux would necessitate moving from closed source to (presumably different) open source applications - which is not true in the general case.

Re: Trojans in space

Malware checking USB sticks...?

Bah!

So NASA has no "scan media on Earth before it goes into orbit" policy, or are the astronauts just breaking the rules here? The answer would appear to be simple in either case: Instigate the policy tootsweet and make breaking it a Swift Kick in the Hurtybits offense.

Re: Bah!

I would have thought anyone clever enough to go to the ISS would voluntarily have all their data storage scanned. Knowing you've just borked the atmosphere scrubber whilst sorting your mp3s should focus the mind.

Re: Autorun strikes again

Personal USB Drive

I suspect the USB Drives that were infected were personal ones owned by the Astronauts that contained all the Frankie Vaughan an Astronaut would need to entertain themselves while alone in space. They probably "forgot" to hand it over to be scanned prior to leaving...

Re: Query

...its malware payload only came into play in screwing up the operation of industrial control systems from Siemens. Additionally, it only activated when the kit was being used to control high-speed equipment such as Iran's nuke purifying centrifuges. Nothing would happen to the same type of kit within a milk-bottling factory or an escalator control mechanism that became infected....

That's all right, then.

We'll forget about the fact that it only takes ONE malicious teenager inside the virus-writing fraternity who isn't thinking much about long-term consequences to put a jump around that.....

Actually what surprises me is the number of computers

Now I know that power is a very important thing in space travel. I recall a number of stories in which additional solar panels were being deployed in order to meet future demand.

Now. I'm guessing that when an experiment is being designed it is self contained and comes with it's own laptop with software installed to run everything. That computer would come with whatever operating system needed to run the software.

I'm also guessing that many aren't actually connected to a network. This is simple safety design. A fault in an individual component won't bring down (heh) your entire space station.

Non-experiments are most likely designed in the same way. Black boxes as far as possible. They all have their own controlling computers so failures can't cascade.

Quite a lot of data transfer is via sneaker net and usb sticks. It's hard to run a network everywhere (like though an air lock into a different module..)

The thing that bothers me is that a laptop is massive overkill in terms of the CPU cycles needed for most of the hardware. Big laptops. Heavy batteries (good if a power problem though). Spinning rust. Internal cooling fans.

Something like a small Raspberry PI would most likely be better. You might not even need a screen/keyboard unless you are interacting with it, so you can carry around essentially a portable dumb terminal with you to do the interactive bits.

Also better in terms of weight.

It takes a lot of delta V to get every single pound out into orbit.

Leaving the hardware and software up to the project implementors likely creates agility in design; the project planners can use whatever skill sets and hardware they are already have up on hand and don't need to get up to speed on new ideas- though I wonder if pushing towards a reference hardware/software module as a base platform would allow skills and ideas to be pooled and shared such as you see with Open Source.

A Pi is a stunningly powerful machine, and are current general purpose operating systems are massively overbloated to get things done. We forget that we got to the moon with onboard computers which were less powerful than a four dollar pocket calculator. You are also not limited in terms of language/tools/operating systems you want to use on it.

It would allow you to also have spares lying around in case there was a hardware fault somewhere.

And the hardware design is fully documented. NASA could design a special variant which was hardened for space, though I don't think this is necessary inside the station itself seeing they are using commercial laptops.

But the idea of Windows being used as a critical component in any system design terrifies me, though the fine article didn't mention in what systems the malware was found. I'm guessing not the important bits.

But malware in nuclear plants? Over an air gapped bridge? Even in the administrative machines? (also not stated) Not good.

Why are Windows systems being used here?

...

Just for the record. OSX also has auto run. At least in the past whenever you mounted a disk image (.DMG) it would automatically run scripting code in that image if it was found, and Safari still has the default of opening a download when finished, that's why Apple added a warning to the OS that "This application was downloaded from the Internet- Run anyway?" type message.

"Ladies and gentlemen" said the head of Trojan-for-You to his motley crew. "I am proud to announce that we are the first malware house ever to get a virus into space. This is one small virus for space, one giant pain for ISS!"

It's true I tell you.

Linux does protect you from viruses or viri or whatever. Everyone in the office where I work has come down a a horrible snotty flu thingy except me. They all use Windows machines while mine is debian Linux.

Re: Virus in space...

Small hint, OS centric idiots.

You have an OS, it can be targeted. Period.

*BSD? Targeted.

OS X? Targeted.

WinBlows? Targeted.

If it's popular or important to someone with deep pockets, such as nation states or criminal organizations, it's targeted. I'll not even go into industrial espionage, as that's moved into the nation state game. Again.

If you run it, if you are interesting, you will be targeted in your OS.

Period.

That windows has a history of supremacy in suchage is beyond the point.

What my command wanted in my Linux and *BSD system wasn't reliability, it was audit-ability and support to ensure the audits were accurate.

The only reason I got *my* OS of choice through was because I was an auditor for that particular OS at the time.

And it wasn't Windows. Windows was job security.

My OS was job stability, as it hearted detection of malware and reported it and did assorted other useful things.

No, you can't know which it was.

Figure it out for yourself. You'll be wrong anyway.

Aka security by idiocy. Let the idiots troll about and hope for success. ;)